P.V. Sindhu lays foundation for Centre for Sports Excellence in Visakhapatnam
P.V. Sindhu and Andhra Pradesh IT & HRD Minister Nara Lokesh laid the foundation stone for the P.V. Sindhu Centre for Sports Excellence in Visakhapatnam on Wednesday (August 5, 2026), beginning a project aimed at nurturing the next generation of India’s Olympic athletes. The initiative was described by organisers as the start of an integrated sports and education campus spread across nearly two lakh square feet.
The project began as a badminton-focused initiative but expanded after discussions with AP Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu and will now include seven disciplines: badminton, table tennis, swimming, shooting, football, basketball and chess. Sindhu said the centre was planned so that each sport would receive equal importance from the outset. Organisers intend the facility to combine training and educational elements within a single campus.
To prepare for the project, Sindhu and her husband, Venkata Datta Sai, spent their vacations studying some of the world’s leading sports facilities, visiting centres in Doha, Milan and Australia, among others. She joked that she now needed a "holiday from all her holidays." The visits were described as learning opportunities intended to inform the centre’s design and athlete-development plans.
Sindhu told The Hindu: "We put our sweat and blood into it. I can confidently tell you that it will be a world-class centre and, at the same time, it will be an institute where people will actually be like, ‘Wow, this is what we need in our state and in the country.'"
The campus has been planned to allow children to experience multiple sports before selecting a discipline to specialise in, with the stated aim of creating a pathway to build elite athletes. Programme planners emphasised multi-sport exposure as a feature of the early-development phase for young participants.
Construction on the facility is scheduled for completion by May 2028. The timeline was presented alongside the foundation-laying ceremony as the next major milestone in delivering the planned training and educational infrastructure.
Reflecting on the project’s significance, Sindhu said it represented a legacy beyond her achievements on the court and added: "Sport has given me and taught me so much. It is a big project and is not easy, but at the same time I wanted something on this scale. I want to show people that we have a lot of talent and if we give them the world-class facilities, I’m sure you will see a lot of kids go on to bag medals for the state and the nation. India gave me the opportunity to win two Olympic medals, which changed my life. And this institution is how I carry that opportunity forward. My medals will always be my greatest honour and I hope this centre becomes my greatest contribution. Olympic medals inspire a generation, but institutions build generations."